The days of mail carriers slipping mail in your mailbox and discreetly moving to the next house have come to an end, according to the new postmaster of Fulton.
"Your employees drive everything we do for our brand," Jason Hirschvogel said. "They're on the street every day meeting and greeting our customers that we're trying to take care of. We want to be visible, and we want people to know we are here to take care of them."
Hirschvogel began his tenure as Fulton postmaster last month and is eager to get the ball rolling with his new job.
"I look forward to getting to know the people and businesses of the community," he said. "It takes time to envelop in the community like we're going to. You're going to see the postal service more. We're a big company, and we need to be visible."
Hailing from Jefferson City, Hirschvogel said he has most recently been employed with the Jefferson City branch of the United States Postal Service, the same branch where he started his career nearly 20 years ago.
"I started my career in Jefferson City as a part-time mail carrier," he said. "It was an opportunity. The postal service is a great company to work for. It's been pretty excellent ever since."
The change of scenery from a city to a smaller town has been a breath of fresh air, Hirschvogel said.
"I thought I'd venture out," he said. "I'd been at Jeff City my whole career, and I wanted to try a different venue with a different post office. We are managed by people (in a rural) community. The area has a down-home feel to it; it's a smaller and closer-knit community."
Jumping into a new job in a new place, the main culture he wanted to instill among his employees was a customer service-centric one, where all employees focus on transparency and community relations.
It didn't take long for Fulton residents to catch on to the vision.
"I wasn't even here two weeks, and we had someone ask if we would be involved in the high school Homecoming parade," he said. "For things like that, we really want to be a partner in the community. It just feels like a good, down-to-earth community. It feels like a great community to be a part of."
Hirschvogel said the welcome party won't last much longer, with two of the busiest seasons happening in the last three months of the year.
"We're coming up on our political mail season," he said. "That's the first thing we're going for. You get out of that and turn around for our peak season, the holidays."
Hirschvogel's new job comes at a difficult time for the postal service. According to the U.S. Postal Service, since 2006 there has been a significant drop in employees and mail volume by nearly 200,000 and 59 billion respectively.
However, Hirschvogel is more optimistic about the postal service's future now than he has been in recent years.
"First class mail is a big factor, because it's declining," he said. "On the other end of the spectrum, package services are climbing, and we are very competitive in package services. Amazon is a big partner of ours. We work well with them and deliver a lot of Amazon Prime packages daily."
One of the features the post office has pushed recently is improved package tracking, Hirschvogel said.
"There are so many scans that everything throughout the system is visible," he said. "We have 13 scans from the time we receive a package to the time it gets to you."
In addition to the increase in package shipping services, Hirschvogel said there are some innovations in the pipeline to help customers.
"Within a few years, we are looking to providing services where you can view what's being sent to your mailbox before it gets there," he said. "It's in the planning stages. I think the future of the postal service looks bright."
Even with the technological advances, Hirschvogel said it is still fascinating what people try to send through the postal service, which sometimes need to be screened and removed.
"You get all kinds of interesting items people try to mail," he said. "You'd be surprised at what people try to ship."
When he's not blowing whistles on packages shipping illegal or unsanctioned items, Hirschvogel said he enjoys spending time blowing his whistle on the basketball court.
"I referee high school basketball," he said. "I've done that for the last 10 years."
Hirschvogel said he has done everything from refereeing to coaching sports to be involved in his children's lives. While many people have hobbies outside of work, Hirschvogel said his family is his hobby, and he is a proud father.
"I'm very passionate about my children," he said. "I have a daughter who's a freshman in college and a son who is a senior at Jefferson City High School. They keep my wife and I involved running around and attended different events. That's what I spend my time doing when I'm not involved in the postal service."
Amanda Gardner, lead service and sales associate for the post office, said Hirschvogel's vision concerning community involvement is spreading to all employees.
"He's wanting to be active in the community," she said. "He wants to join the chamber and have us all out in the community a little more. I think as a business it's important, and right up there with customer service."
Gardner said her new boss runs a tight ship, and is having a positive impact on the office.
"He's really on top of the ball," she added. "He seems to know what he's doing and he's concerned about the way the post office operates. We're hoping it will be fantastic."
Hirschvogel said the positivity has been around since long before he came, and he inherited some incredible employees.
"The crew that's here now, they do a great job," he said. "They are really customer-driven. These folks hold their own and they do a great job for an office this size."